Muhammad Ali in The Greatest

The title (Ali’s nickname) says it all. The heavyweight champ, born Cassius Clay, plays himself in the 1977 film based on his autobiography. The action kicks off with Ali’s gold medal-winning bout (he was a mere light heavyweight then) at the 1960 Rome Olympics. It’s an appropriately triumphant beginning to the story of the ”float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” sports legend, whose appearance to light the ceremony-starting cauldron at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics brought a nation to tears (and cheers). —Erin Strecker